I have lived in many different countries and physical environments; however, I don’t think I could live without trees for long. I remember a cross-country ride from California to DC, crossing the seemingly endless Kansas flatlands with hardly any tree in sight; then approaching the first tree-covered hillsides in Missouri. Seeing those trees felt like a homecoming.
I grew up in the foothills of the Black Forest in Southern Germany. There were trees everywhere, they are part of me. I believe in what I call the “landscape of the soul.” It is that place we feel most at home in. The landscape of my soul always contains trees; whether they are pines, mangroves or mango trees does not matter.

Trees provide nourishment. We can harvest tree sap in late winter for maple syrup, flowers in spring for teas and cooking (think locust blossoms and red bud blooms), leaves and young branches or bark for medicinal tinctures (think willow and witch hazel), fruit and nuts in fall and early winter.

Even if you are not a tree hugger, you may have been drawn to a certain tree; perhaps climbed one as a child and spent time just sitting in a certain tree or a tree house. Did it not feel like a special place, a different world, where you could be anything, dream up new worlds and new ways of being?

A beautiful tribute to trees. As you know, our trees are being attacked by the bark beetle, killing off all the infested pines. It is a sad sight to see these millions of dying trees amongst the beauty of the sierras.

This post resonates with me. Your photos are spectacular! I love trees, too, and can’t imagine not having them nearby. Have you read or watched “Lord of the Rings”? There are the mystical tree creatures called Ents that come to life and walk around. I absolutely loved that part and the book was so much more descriptive in the Ents’ past history They feel and have characters.

You know I remembered a movie where trees were able to walk but couldn’t remember which one. I also remembered “home tree” in Avatar and the important message – when you kill the Tree (standing in for all trees), you kill our home base, our way of living in harmony….I saw the movie three times and each time got another layer of meaning…

This is a beautiful tribute to trees Annette! I too resonate with trees and places that feed our soul. I had the similar feeling traveling through Kansas, and yet for a short time, the prairies also feels expansive, if a bit exposed. May we appreciate trees and all the precious gifts of nature.

Thank you, Brad. Yes, at first, coming over the Colorado mountains and seeing the great plains all the way to the horizon looks awesome. After a day of driving, not so much anymore… Yes, we must understand and better appreciate the role of trees and their preciousness in the links of life.

So very true…without trees and plants, we are done for. However, plant life has been around for about 400 million years while humans have only been here for what – about 1 million years? So I suspect the plants will survive us, they are smarter than we are 🙂

I agree that plants are smarter than we are. They have learned how to communicate & survive in communities better than we have. When you look around though you see signs of both fragility and resilience – fragility of species but overall resilience. Some of the tree species we so love are ill and seriously threatened. As for people, Jared Diamond reminds us of instances where people cut the very, very last tree on island civilizations and then starved to death. I haven’t given up hope but damn we do stupid things! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed

Large-scale deforestation of the Amazon is just one example of how stupid we are. We are destroying the lungs of our planet with huge repercussions even on weather worldwide…but if we don’t wake up and change our ways and if we end up destroying ourselves by destroying our sources of air and food, the plants will recoup in one form or another. There are seeds that have sprouted after being dormant for hundreds of years, given the right conditions.

You’ve reminded me of some of the most special trees I’ve ever known — and they were in the Black Forest. I worked with a young man in Liberia who was from the area. One Christmas he invited me to stop and visit while I was in Germany. I don’t remember now exactly where the home was, but it was close to Dornhan.

They lived in a traditional home, with the cattle below. The first night I was there, it snowed and snowed. I went out for a walk the next day, and those huge, beautiful trees were covered with snow. In fact, it still was snowing a bit. It was as quiet as I’ve ever heard the world, and I still can see those trees in my mind.

There is a story of how I was led to this carving: I was taking pics in the courtyard of one of the iconic churches in Albuquerque, really taking my time looking around and taking in the energy of the place. An old Indian man was watching me for a while and then asked me to come along with him. He led me outside the courtyard to the back and showed me the tree with its Madonna carving. I would have had no reason to walk back there by myself, so I was very grateful to him.